Mega Empties Post Part 1: Acne Skincare, Lotions, Cleansers, Oil Makeup Removers

It's been a while since my last empties post in October last year, and since them, I've accumulated a loooot of empties to show you guys! To be clear though, not alll of these are my empties, there are a few bits and bobs in there that are contributed by my mother and sister, because they do help themselves to some of my skincare products from time to time! I'm happy to let them indulge though, because to be honest, I obviously have way more skincare than I can ever use up!

Oh yes, look at all the empties I've accumulated!

The products I (with a little help from mum and sis) have used up really run the gamut - every step of the skincare and makeup routine is covered here! But because this would be too long of a post, I've split it up into two. For today, we'll just cover the acne skicare (unfortunately this is all mine, my mum and sis have way better skin than me, sigh), lotions and toners, as well as cleansers and makeup removers.

Who's been a good girl and using up all her skincare before opening a new one? Yours truly!

So, without further ado, let's get started! I'm officially going to cram a bunch of mini-reviews together into this blogpost, so let's hope this doesn't end up being too long!

Stuff I've Used Up! Super Mega Empties Post: Skincare and Makeup

This is a pretty major empties post, because the last time I blogged about my empties was half a year ago in December last year (it was also a pretty large post, that I split into two parts, part 1 and part 2). This time around, I have even more stuff!

The nice thing about empties is that, for me, using a product up comes with a sense of accomplishment (as in, hey, I actually stuck to something long enough to use it up!) and also a sense of permission (as in, hey, I've used up a lipstick, now I can buy another lipstick)! So for a beauty junkie like me, it's both gratifying and enabling!



Obviously, there's a lot to go through, so without further ado, let's jump right in!

ISOI Bulgarian Rose Blemish Care Serum Review and Ingredients Analysis

ISOI is a Korean skincare brand that touts itself as using natural products and "no harmful chemicals" (quote directly from the front page of the website). ISOI stands for "I SO Intelligent", and the main page of the ISOI site also encourages people to "Be an Intelligent Customer, and use isoi" and its "speed-effective natural skin care". And, the bestselling product from ISOI is its Bulgarian Rose Blemish Care Serum, which I'm reviewing today.

ISOI Bulgarian Rose Blemish Care Serum: The best-selling product from ISOI

Let me first say, the irony of encouraging people to be intelligent consumers while trashing "harmful chemicals" and promoting "natural skin care" in general is not lost on me. The fact is, as far as skincare is concerned, chemicals are not inherently bad, and not everything natural is automatically good. This is particularly the case for skincare, where the application is topical, as opposed to ingested, so while certain ingredients are good for the body when eaten, they might not have the same effect on skin. For example, even simple, natural things like lemon juice can be bad when applied to skin, because they are phototoxic could trigger skin reactions when exposed to sunlight after application, while certain "chemicals" like retinols, are good for skin.


ISOI Bulgarian Rose Blemish Care Serum: ISOI bills itself as a natural skincare brand with no harmful chemicals
But that's just the marketing, and in a highly competitive market, brands will market themselves in whatever way sells best to the customer and gets their attention. And, the natural skincare trend has been blooming for awhile (as we've recently seen at BeautyAsia 2015 and other trade shows), and shows no signs of abating. And since I'm the kind of consumer who pays more attention to the ingredients list of the product than who the spokesperson for the brand is, I'm pretty much indifferent to how the product is marketed. So, marketing aside, how does the product fare?

To answer that question, we'll start at my very favourite (and my very usual) place to begin a product review - the ingredients list!

La Roche Posay Serozinc Ingredients Review and Analysis: What Does the Science Say About Zinc Sulphate?

La Roche Posay Serozinc has been making quite the waves on the blogosphere, and many bloggers seem to be raving about this product, and following a twitter conversation with Ling, who has her own blog, I got the idea that, in light of all the raves Serozinc has been getting, it would be good for me to take a more analytical approach to the product. La Roche Posay claims that the product "cleanses superficial skin irritations" on their website, and the product is promoted as an anti-blemish toner. You apply it to cleansed skin, wait for a while, and then continue on with the rest of your regime.

La Roche Posay's Serozinc is highly anticipated and highly raved (Source)

Escentual's site promotes Serozinc as "created with just three ingredients: La Roche-Posay’s ultra-soothing thermal spring water, healing zinc sulphate (0.10%) and astringent sodium chloride (0.75%). Together, these three ingredients target blemishes, marks and excess oiliness, ensuring your complexion feels fresh and comfortable at any time of day." So I guess we already know what the product is made of, and what the claims are. A lot of the rave reviews for Serozinc seem to have come from the fact that it is so simply formulated, which I suppose must be refreshing in a sea of products making complicated ingredient claims.

Serozinc is really getting a lot of hype despite the simple formulation (Source)

But before I start, I must clarify that I have never actually tried this product myself personally. Although ideally a more complete "review" (in the sense of a blog review) would have my own personal experience with the product woven in (as I do with my normal reviews), for the purposes of this post, we are looking at what the science says about the usefulness of Zinc Sulphate, which will in turn help consumers (like you and me!) decide whether it's really worth spending your hard-earned money on the product. So just take this as me doing your science homework for you, to help you make an educated decision before you buy the product! So, without further ado, let's take a look at the ingredients in the product!

LJH Cosmetics Tea Tree 90 Essence Review and Ingredients Analysis

LJH Cosmetics (or LeeJiHam Cosmetics) is a Korean line of skincare (and some cosmetics, like BB creams), and is a line that is fairly niche, and fairly new to me - I've never heard of the brand until now! LJH apparently stands for LeeJiHam, and is the last names of its three founders, Lee Yu-Deuk, Ji Hye-Gu, and Ham Ik-Byeong (last names are all listed first as per Korean convention), and the three founders are also all doctors, hence the billing of some of the LJC Cosmetics product ranges as "Doctor's Care". LJH Cosmetics also likes to bill itself as a "cosmeceutical", rather than a cosmetic company, so it does seem to me that the company has a lot of its marketing riding on its "doctor" credentials. You guys know I'm all about skincare that's backed by science, so this brand piqued my curiousity.

LJH Cosmetics Tea Tree 90 Essence: A Korean product that targets blemishes

One of the first things I tried was the LJH Cosmetics Tea Tree 90 Essence, because it was one of their more popular blemish products. And although I'm going to be turning 30 in a few years (time flies!), it still seems to me that my acne and pimples are still partying like it's 2004 or something. Anyway, this was the first product that caught my eye, and I thought I should review it on my blog!


LJH Cosmetics was apparently founded by three doctors, and "LJH" are their last names' initials.
As usual, we start off with the ingredients list, which is always my favourite place to look, because you know, beauty science is pretty fun. After all, if the brand was started by three doctors, it should be pretty impressive ingredients-wise! So that's the perfect place to start

Stuff I Actually Use Up! More Empties of Skincare, Makeup, and Nail Products!

Ooh, what do we have here? More empties! And boy, am I excited to show you these - since my last empties post some months back, I've been a good beauty blogger and have actually used up stuff in my stash! And of course this means I have to tell you guys all about it, and do a quick summary of how the products have worked for me! As you might be able to guess, though, chances are, if I used it up, it probably did a pretty good job. So here's what I've used up!

Look ma, so many empties! These include skincare, makeup, and nail products. Yay!

Yes, look at that - it's a whole bunch of products covering makeup, skincare, and nails! Without further ado, let's dive straight into them, shall we?

Vichy Normaderm Review: Hylauspot, Active Care, Cleanser, Toner

Vichy has launched their Normaderm range of skincare products, which is meant to help acne-prone skin (aka my type of skin!). It consists of four products, namely the Normaderm Deep Cleansing Purifying Gel, Normaderm Imperfection Prone Skin Lotion, Normaderm Tri-Active Anti-Imperfection Active Care, and Normaderm Hylauspot, covering all your skincare bases: cleanse, tone, moisturize, and spot-treat. As you can imagine, I was pretty excited to try this range. And after having used it for a few months (because I'm sometimes slow on reviews like that), I have to say I think the range is pretty effective at what it claims to do.

Vichy Normaderm: Hylauspot, Active Care, Cleanser, and Toner

In general, I found the entire range to be pleasing to use. In general, the products, sink into skin and absorb fast, and leaves skin feeling clean and dry but not stretched out or dehydrated. The fact that efficacious ingredients like glycolic acid and salicylic acid are included really help two - those two are some of my favourite ingredients ever for my acne-prone, oily skin bits. The range also strikes a good balance, using glycolic and salicylic acid to target acne and oily skin, but yet at the same time having rather moisturizing formulas. And, the packaging is pretty sensible as well - all plastic flip tops and pumps, or squeeze tubes or other form of tubes. You .

But now, let's go into each of the products one by one, and you'll see what I think about the individual products!

Skinetica: Acne Treatment That Isn't Harsh on Your Skin

As most of my longtime readers will know, acne is something that I've struggled with for a long, long time (nearly a decade, I think). I've tried everything and anything, and while my acne is better now, I do still get pimples. Hence, my foray into Skinetica.

What intrigued me about Skinetica was the fact that it was slightly different from other acne products - instead of using benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid, its active ingredient is actually a quaternary ammonium compound (ammonium chloride in this case). The claim is that the quaternary ammonium compound interferes with the cell walls of the P. Acnes bacteria, thus killing it by disrupting its cell wall.

Skinetica: An acne treatment that relies on a quaternary ammonium compound.

Knowing that, the next logical search was to - you guessed it, look at the scientific literature, and see what it said about the product!

Biotherm Purefect Skin:Perfect for Blemished Skin

Biotherm launched its Purefect Skin range, which consists of a range of skincare products targeted at blemished skin. I was at the launch of the range held waay back in end-May, but for some reason, I just never got around to actually trying it out. Now that I've actually tried out the Purefect Skin range, I'm actually kicking myself for not trying it out earlier!

As a acne-ridden twenty-something (who says acne doesn't just plague your teen years, huh), I'm always on the lookout for something that can help my blemish-prone skin. And I think the Biotherm Purefect Skin range has actually helped my skin.



The first product is the Purefect Skin Anti-Shine Purifying Cleansing Gel. As the name suggests, this is a cleansing gel that comes in the form of a clear gel. I wasn't expecting much out of it, but I feel like it really cleans my skin, without leaving it overly-dry. I did get a bit of tightness, but not anymore than your average blemish-skin cleanser.



Another thing about the Purifying Cleansing Gel that I liked was that it really foams up very well. I was actually surprised by the amount of lather that I got out of a little bit of gel! So if you like foaming cleansers, this will be right up your alley.



The next product in the lineup is the Micro-Exfoliating Purifying Toner. This is a toner with salicylic acid, which will help acne-prone skin by killing bacteria and promoting skin turnover. I also liked this on my oily, acne-prone skin. I imagine that if you have dry skin, the salicylic acid may be a little bit harsh on your skin. This probably works best for oily, pimply skin.



Lastly, we have the Pure Skin Effect Hydrating Gel. This comes in a really cute-looking pump bottle. There was actually a really snazzy blue-and-white box that came with this too, but I didn't manage to get a photo of it.

The Pure Skin Effect Hydrating Gel is a really light-textured, white gel that applies well because it's so lightweight, and absorbs fast. It doesn't leave behind any residue, but leaves your skin feeling less oily. I actually really like this product - it also works very well under my makeup.



One thing I like about Biotherm's Purefect Skin range is the fact that it's just three simple, basic products - a cleansing gel, a toner, and a moisturizer. No fancy masks, or serums, or other extraneous things I don't really have time for in my schedule. If oure looking for a no-nonsense skincare range with all the basic attributes needed for regulating acne-prone skin, then this range will be perfect for you.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)